maple fretboard?

[micschi 0]

hey, Line 6—any plans to make a Varian Standard with a maple fingerboard? thx.

[gstew 12]

One interesting point about maple fingerboards is that they have a finish on them. So your fingers are playing on finish instead of wood. If you are like me and have experienced playing the heck out of a single guitar, you may have ended up with divets in your frets around the second and third fret. If you are on your second or third fret level, then you need new frets. New frets on a rosewood board, $150. New frets and a required refinish on a maple fingerboard $300.

[clay-man 261]

There's something more comforting on playing on a Maple fretboard. If they released a Variax Standard with a Maple fretboard, I might of gotten a Standard over the JTV. 

 

It's also a style thing. Any Fender-esque guitar, maple is mandatory.

[billlorentzen 73]

I've always disliked the stickiness of a maple board, which has to be finished. Plus IMHO single coils are bright enough already (maple is reputed to be brighter). Sometimes it looks cool though.

[DarrellM5 170]

I have guitars with maple, rosewood and ebony fretboards and honestly can't tell the difference in play-ability or sound.  I like both but for me it comes down to which looks better on a particular guitar.

[cruisinon2 2,344]

I have guitars with maple, rosewood and ebony fretboards and honestly can't tell the difference in play-ability or sound.  I like both but for me it comes down to which looks better on a particular guitar.

 

As far as I'm concerned the biggest difference is feel, not so much tone...although the harder woods do seem slightly darker on some guitars...but that could easily be attributed to other factors...hard to say. Also, how the various woods react to seasonal changes in temperature and humidity I find to be significantly different. Maple is a softer wood than either rosewood or ebony, and while I've only owned a couple of guitars with maple necks over the years, both of them required much more frequent and more dramatic truss rod adjustments than any of my rosewood or ebony necks. I have a couple of ebony necks that hardly move at all, while the maple ones will twist themselves into pretzels, by comparison.

[Charlie_Watt 432]

I have both kinds of necks (maple on Strat and G&L, Rosewood on most others)  like both.  I do not have a strong preference either way.